Different kind of detox and rehab

I’M afraid more and more people are now going to programs of detox and rehab. The general environment has deteriorated so much that we can easily note an increase in the incidence of substance abuse.

The rise of the relevant facilities to attend to this hemorrhaging social problem is proof of this sad development. We need to pray a lot and offer sacrifices so that one way or another this crisis gets resolved soon.

But there’s a far worse kind of abuse and addiction that urgently needs a special kind of detox and rehab programs. What makes it more severe is that the people involved are still in the denial stage and they are quite a smart and slippery lot.

Worse still, their questionable attitudes and actuations seem to be reinforced systematically by certain aspects of our political culture. And, mind you, we’re not talking of a sub-culture, but rather of the dominant, mainstream political culture of ours.

Up to now, in spite of the many years of dramatic developments and experience as a people wanting to be a nation, our political culture is still a no-man’s-land, highly volatile and in perpetual twists and turns, a veritable wild-goose chase. It’s a fertile ground for anomalies to fester.

The people involved never admit something is wrong with them. In fact, you see them in the public arena not only making a lot of noise, but also giving directions to others of how things ought to be. They present themselves as our leaders.

With elections coming and the jockeying for positions now the game in town, politicians are coming out into the open doing all sorts of posturing, showing off and putting on airs.

To a certain extent this behavior is understandable and to be expected. Problem is many go far beyond the limits and are showing their true ugly colors.

And what are these true colors? Nothing other than greed and unhinged ambition, intoxication and addiction to power, of the kind that effectively makes a shipwreck of the consciences of the people involved, often turning them into clowns and heartless users and exploiters.

In spite of their clever packaging, these are what we see in them quite plainly. They go to the ridiculous extent of seeing nothing good in their opponents and nothing bad in themselves.

The serious business of politics is travestized and trivialized by nincompoopic players, who make democracy the excuse for their participation.

And there are many of this kind of politicians. The national scene already has quite a handful. You go to the local scene—from provinces to cities to towns—and the figure can be staggering.

They obviously are into some serious disorder and in great, immediate need for detox and rehab. They need to be told bluntly about it, if not immediately sent to some pertinent clinics or hospitals. The symptoms are just too plain.

But are there healing programs for this kind of sick people? What kind of treatment should be given?

Certainly, this disorder is more of the spirit than of the body, more moral and psychological than organic. The pertinent treatment should be along the lines of the spiritual and the moral, affecting the thinking, the will and the heart, and involving the development of virtues and the attainment of integrity.

Any program of detox and rehab should entail the process of genuine inner conversion, purification of the senses and the faculties, and the establishment and strengthening of virtues. A lot of value clarification and amplification ought to be done.

This idea should not anymore be considered as strange, impracticable or quixotic. This is the most logical thing to do, the normal path to proceed. And the relevant means and resources are actually available. We just have to get our act together.

This is easier said than done. But we can always try. We are always obliged to do the impossible. We need to develop a workable plan of life that would contribute to politicians’ immunization from temptations of greed and lust for power, and trigger a continuing process of renewal and purification.

In short, it has to spring from a well-defined and reliable spirituality, one attuned to the concrete conditions and environment of politicians, and honing their will to serve.

Outside of this framework, we really have no reason to believe our politicians would behave the way they should. We would be in for another wasteful extravanza.